Page 46 of Claimed By the Cowboys

Brent and I glare at each other. But I’m absolutely not backing down.

Finally, Brent sighs. “Look, there’s some stuff you don’t know about me. About the farm.”

“I kind of gathered that,” I snort.

He looks down at his hands. “When we first bought the farm, we were on track to pay the whole thing off. And then one day, I was in a bar, and some guy came up to me and talked to me about… investments.”

I frown. “Investments?”

“Yeah. Like places to put our money, different things we could do to try and… increase our funding.”

Oh. “What kind of investments?”

Brent huffs. “Does it even matter? It’s not a business, Piper. It’s gambling. Rich people playing with money that isn’t theirs. By the time it was all said and done, every ounce of profit we’d made so far on the farm was gone. And then some.”

My heart aches for him. “Brent. You were trying to do the right thing. It’s not your fault that someone screwed you over like that.”

“It is my fault,” he says darkly. His voice is so full of bitterness that it makes me feel like he’s drowning in darkness over this.

“Brent. You were a kid. You guys bought this farm with your inheritance when you were eighteen years old.”

“I should have known better.”

“You literally couldn’t have!” I practically yell.

In her stall, the copper mare snorts and shifts.

Brent shakes his head. “I’m the one who fucked it up, Piper.”

But this time, it sounds like there’s more emotion behind those words.

I kneel down, tucking close to him. My mind is racing. Clearly, Brent is not going to forgive himself for this anytime soon.

Gently, I put my hand under his chin and tip his face up to mine. “Okay.”

He looks confused. “Okay?”

“Okay. I believe you. It was your fault.”

Brent looks away, but I keep my hand on his chin, and I pull his eyes back to mine.

“It might have been your fault then, but guess what? It’s over now.”

Brent’s eyebrows pinch together in confusion.

“It’s over. You’ve got a really good plan to make the farm profitable. You’re on the right track, and I know what the farm’s like financially right now, but I bet it’s not nearly as bad as it was.”

He frowns. “But it’s been years, Piper. Almost a decade. We could have spent that whole time?—”

“How you could have spent that time doesn’t matter. You didn’t lose the farm, did you?”

Brent clearly doesn’t want to, but he shakes his head.

“Right. You didn’t. You made it, Brent. You fixed it. So can you be done making yourself feel terrible now?”

“Piper…”

“I’m done with it, Brent. It doesn’t matter. You’ve done everything you can, and it’s all fixed now.”

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